Open Start a project and say what you want in plain words. A small website that explains your offer and lets visitors contact you is a great first project.
2
Pick your plan
Chef shows the total cost before you pay. Members of MaxNova get lower prices, and a promo code can start a free trial.
3
Connect your tools
Choose where the code is kept (GitHub) and which AI writes it. Use MaxChef's own, bring your own, or mix them. You can also do this later.
4
Watch it get built
A cloud worker builds the first version, then keeps working through the task list on your board. Add tasks any time to ask for changes.
Where things are
Once you sign in, these four places hold almost everything.
Top of every page
Top bar
The MaxChef logo takes you home. Your account menu on the right holds Teams, MaxAuth account and Settings.
Left side, or across the top
Project bar
Every project you can open, with a live card for the task a worker is busy with. Hide projects you do not need, fold the bar, or turn it sideways.
Top right of a project board
Board toolbar
Auto-Approve, Admin, Project info (the i button), Project settings (the gear), Project chat and Add + for a new task.
Account menu → Settings
Account settings
Connections shared by all your projects: GitHub, AI providers, Stripe, your password, membership and project subscriptions.
Your board
Each project has a board of tasks. Cards move from left to right as the work gets done.
To DoTasks waiting for a worker. Drag them to change the order; workers take the top one first.
In ProgressA worker is building this task right now. The card shows its latest progress.
Waiting for ConfigurationThe task needs something only you can give, such as an API key. Open the card to see what is missing.
Waiting for MergeThe work is finished. Press Approve to put it live, or turn on Auto-Approve to let it go live by itself.
ErroredSomething went wrong. Open the card to see what happened, or delete the task.
DoneFinished tasks. Open one to see what was built.
SuggestionsIdeas from you and visitors. Review one to turn it into a task, or delete it.
Handy buttons
Add +
Opens a new task. Write a checklist of what you want; each line is one piece of work.
Auto-Approve
When on, finished work goes live by itself. When off, it waits in Waiting for Merge until you press Approve.
Project chat
Ask Chef's AI assistant questions about your project in plain words.
Pause, edit or cancel
Open a task card to pause it, edit its checklist while it waits, or cancel it.
Test deploy
Send a finished task to the test environment, and optionally have a worker check it before it goes live.
Project settings
Open a project's board and press the gear button. Settings are split into these tabs.
Project settings → General
General
The basics: what the project is called, who can see it and how its tasks run.
Name
The project's name. Its public address is made from the name and changes with it.
Owner and TeamOwners and admins choose the team
Who owns the project, and which team's members also get access.
Description
A few sentences about the project. Workers read it to understand what you are building.
Business status
Building or Live. Mark it Live once it has a working public address. A live business cannot go back to Building.
Visibility
Private, or Public so anyone can see the board, vote and make suggestions. Going public needs an admin's approval first.
Connect GitHub
Connects the GitHub account where the project's code is kept.
Task execution
Run in Chef Cloud (nothing has to stay on) or Run on my computer with your own Chef worker. Untick Enable task execution to stop new work.
Project settings → Domains
Domains
Give the project its own web address and prove you own it.
Canonical domain
The address your project answers on. A domain bought through MaxDomains is set up for you; any other domain needs two DNS records, which Chef shows you.
TXT records
Verification codes that services like Google, Meta or TikTok ask for. Only add codes from your own accounts; each one needs your password.
Project settings → Automation
Automation
The AI that builds your project and how fast it works.
Cloud WorkerProject owner
Connect Codex (ChatGPT or an OpenAI key) or Claude Code (an Anthropic key). If both are connected, Chef switches to the other one when the first runs out of usage.
Active coding provider
Which AI goes first when both are connected.
Fast mode
Finishes everyday work sooner. Set it for all your projects, then turn it on or off for this one.
Parallel workers
How many tasks can be built at the same time.
Project AI keys
Optional keys used only for this project. Anything left empty uses your account's connections.
Project settings → Packages
Packages
Ready-made features you can switch on, like sign-in, analytics, email and payments.
Install or update
Each package lists what it does. Switch one on or off and Chef sets up its keys for you. When a newer version comes out, Update opens a task to bring it up to date.
MaxAuth sign-in
Once MaxAuth is installed: how strongly people must prove who they are, and the exact addresses they return to after signing in.
Stripe
Once Stripe is installed: connect this project's Stripe account, or use the one from your account settings.
CodePush
Once CodePush is installed: hold, roll back or slowly roll out updates to your iOS and Android apps.
Project settings → Email
Email
Send your website's emails from your own domain.
Email from your domain
Pick a verified domain and a reply-to address, then send through MaxMail or your own SendGrid account. Chef shows the DNS records to add.
Project settings → Environment
Environment
Secret keys and settings your app reads while it runs.
Environment variables
Add the API keys your app asks for, like a Stripe key, for the live site. Chef lists the keys a task needs.
Test environment
A separate copy of the project with its own address, empty database and keys. Use test keys here so nothing can charge a real card.
Project settings → Testing
Testing
Let Chef check your app for you every night.
Nightly testing
Once a day, if anything changed, Chef puts the newest code on the test environment and has a worker try it. Give it a test sign-in, see recent runs and their results.
Project settings → Billing & hosting
Billing & hosting
What you pay Chef, and how your app takes payments.
Your Stripe account
Payments your app collects go to your own Stripe account. This is separate from what you pay Chef.
Project subscriptionProject owner
Your plan for hosting and the cloud worker, its renewal date, and a way to cancel.
Room to grow
Add more hosting capacity when your app gets busy. Chef recommends a size and shows the price first.
Billing offers, hosting placement and image buildsPlatform admins only
Pricing and server choices run by the MaxChef team.
Project settings → Versions
Versions
Go back to an earlier version if something went wrong.
Restore a version
Pick an earlier save of your code and bring it back. Chef adds it as a new save, so you can undo the restore too.
Project settings → Danger zone
Danger zone
Big changes that are hard to undo.
Transfer projectProject owner
Hand the project to someone else by entering their email address.
Delete project
Removes the project, its board, tasks, chat and attachments forever. You type the project's name to confirm.
Some settings only appear for the project's owner, and a few only for the MaxChef team. Team members see the tabs their access allows.
Project admin
Press Admin on the board to see how your live app is doing. Each tab appears once its package is installed.
Analytics
Visitors, sessions, where people came from, countries, devices, events and subscription revenue.
Users
The people using your app, from the Analytics package.
Errors
Problems your app hit, grouped together. Each new problem adds a fix task to To Do.
Stripe
Your customers, subscriptions, payments and products.
Support
Read and answer email sent to your domain. The tab shows how many are unread.
CodePush
Releases sent to your installed mobile apps.
Project info
Press the i button on the board. This is the project's own notebook, kept up to date as workers finish tasks.
Project overview
A short summary of what the project is.
Environment variables
The names of keys the project needs and how to get them. Never the secret values.
Built features
What has been built so far.
Notes
Add anything workers should always remember about your project.
Your account
Open the account menu in the top right corner.
Account menu → Settings
Settings
Shared by every project you own.
GitHub
Where your projects' code is kept.
Anthropic and ChatGPT
The AI accounts your cloud workers use.
MaxNova membership
Lower project prices. See when it renews or cancel it.
Project subscriptions
One subscription per project. Cancelling one leaves the others running.
Change password
Signs out your other devices and disconnects connected apps.
Stripe
Connect Stripe once for all your projects. A project can still use its own.
Account menu → MaxAuth account
MaxAuth account
Your one sign-in for every MaxNova app.
Connected emails
Sign in with more than one email, like personal and work.
Passkeys
Sign in with your fingerprint, face or screen lock.
Security
Change your password and remove apps that can use your account.
Connections and AI credits
Choose your GitHub and AI for new projects, and see the MaxChef AI credits you have used this month.
Account menu → Teams
Teams
Work on projects together.
Create a team
Invite people with a link, choose their role and which projects they can open, then pick the team in a project's General settings.
Packages
Ready-made features you can add from Project settings → Packages. Chef sets up their keys for you.
MaxAuth
Shared email-first MaxAuth identity and membership with passwordless or password-required sign-in policies.
Analytics
First-party page views, unique visitors, sessions and time on site, referrals and campaigns, visitor countries, languages and devices, the product events each project chooses to track, and subscribers with monthly recurring revenue, without Google Analytics.
Errors
Capture, sanitize, group, and surface frontend and backend errors, with unique failures added to To Do.
Terms, Privacy, AI Disclaimer
Add customized /terms, /privacy, and /disclaimer pages from maintained legal templates.
Email
Send transactional email through Chef's shared MaxMail gateway without giving the project an email provider API key.
Realtime
Project-isolated WebSocket updates through MaxVolts without managing Ably keys or realtime infrastructure.
Stripe
Accept payments with your Stripe account. Save your secret key in Project Settings (or once in account Settings for all projects) and see customers, subscriptions, payments and products in Project Admin.
Support inbox
Receive email sent to any address on the project's domain and answer it from Project Admin > Support. Replies come from support@ your domain and the person's answer returns to the same conversation.
CodePush
Over-the-air updates for the project's web app and its Capacitor iOS and Android apps: every release of the website reaches installed apps without a new store submission, with a hold switch, rollback and a rollout percentage.
Questions
Do I need to know how to code?
No. You write what you want in plain words, and Chef's AI workers write, test and publish the code.
A task is stuck in Waiting for Configuration. What now?
Open the card. It says what is missing, usually a key from another service. Add it in Project settings → Environment and the task carries on.
How do I make my project public?
Project settings → General → Visibility → Public. An admin reviews the request; your project stays private until it is approved.
Can I undo a change?
Yes. Project settings → Versions lets you bring back an earlier version without losing anything.
Where do I connect my own domain?
Project settings → Domains. Domains bought through MaxDomains are set up for you.